Russia develops new law for Internet regulation

Personal data protection, intellectual property rights, e-democracy, the fight against cybercrime, and the rules of self-regulation for social networks are just some of the issues to be addressed in a concept for the Internet regulation drafted by Russia’s executive branch.

The "Concept of Legal
Regulation of the Internet" was drafted by the Presidential Executive
Office, with input from a number of State Duma deputies. The document is
intended to form the basis of the new Internet Law.

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United Russia deputy Robert
Schlegel, a co-author of the concept who sits on the Committee for Information
Policy, Information Technology and Communications, noted that it had yet to be
finalized. He stated that the document was a starting point for further
discussion, rather than a finished article.

The text of the concept is
divided into several chapters.

The first outlines the reasons why Russia urgently
needs to draft legislation to govern online activity. For example, the document
notes that "current procedural legislation does not provide for the use of
the Internet in respect of legal proceedings, and does not recognize the
evidential value of e-documents signed with electronic signatures, as in the
case, for example, of agreements signed remotely via the Internet."

In this regard, the concept
highlights that "the framing of online regulation proposals should involve
the authorities, the business community, civil society organizations, and
citizens."

The purpose of the bill, as
presently conceived, is not only to "ensure the rights and freedoms of
citizens online," but to "overcome the digital divide,"
"provide conditions for non-discriminatory online access throughout the
Russian Federation," "expand the use of electronic communications,
e-commerce, and other commercial activity," "protect personal data
and information in accordance with the law of the Russian Federation," and
"reduce administrative barriers and restrictions in online interaction
between the state and society."

The proposed measures are also intended to
fight cybercrime and bring Russian legislation in line with international
conventions.

Subsequent parts of the document
set out the core areas to be regulated by the new legislation.

The first task for legislators
is to understand key online terms and concepts in a legal context. According to
the authors, the legislation requires a conceptual framework that
"reflects the specific nature of the interaction of all online parties and
establishes the legal status of the main technological, informational, and
infrastructural elements of the Internet, including information aggregation and
processing, storage, file-sharing, websites, addressing, and hosting."

Once the conceptual framework is
in place, it remains to determine the territorial jurisdiction of Russia in
respect to the Internet (i.e., which sites are subject to Russian law, and
which are not), and the extent to which Russian legislation will conform to
international rules in this area.

A separate body of law will
regulate the use of electronic signatures, electronic payments, advertising,
search engines, and social networks.

Schlegel emphasized that, in the
case of social networks, most issues will likely come under the purview of
self-regulation.

"The law will have to
stipulate who is responsible for what and, for example, in the case of
cybercrime, self-regulation will not suffice. But, in regard to social
networks, it is not feasible to enshrine all scenarios in law, and not
everything needs to be described, so some of it can be self-regulated,"
said the United Russia deputy.

Other areas to be regulated are
the question of copyright and intellectual property rights, the establishment
in law of the concept of an "open license," and the issue of how to
protect personal data. The law will prescribe liability for online crimes, as
well as mechanisms to combat spam, fraud, and improper advertising.

One final area that the authors
of the concept deem necessary is a "description of the mechanisms of the
Internet to ensure e-democracy, e-voting, citizens' involvement in public
administration and municipal government, and citizens' participation in
deciding matters of social significance."